Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a high-density server with a housing accommodating a plurality of server modules including motherboards and riser cards, and in particular to standardization of server modules demonstrating compatibility between them.
The present application claims priority on Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-97739, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, computers have been categorized into clients and servers, wherein servers have been further developed into high-density servers with housing accommodating a plurality of sever modules including motherboards and riser cards. Additionally, various configurations and structures have been developed with respect to bus systems, circuit boards, connectors, and power supply units.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a bus hierarchy extension method for efficiently utilizing slots in a compact PCI bus system. It teaches an upper bus and a lower bus connected to a bridge substrate, wherein a pin alignment of a connector in the upper bus is determined in a 180-degree reverse manner to a pin alignment of a connector in the lower bus. Patent Literature 2 discloses a circuit board, e.g. an adaptor card with a male connector having a reversible connectivity to a female connector built in an extension slot. It teaches that a pair of a male connector and a female connector is disposed at opposite sides of an adaptor card. Patent Literature 3 discloses a connector device preventing easy detachment of connectors adapted to a game machine. It teaches that a connector device having a horizontal/vertical symmetrical shape is connectible to a connector receiver in a vertically-symmetrical manner. Patent Literature 4 discloses a notebook information processing device with a pair of connectors which allows a display unit to be reversely connected to a main body.
A conventional example of a high-density server is built with a housing accommodating a pair of server modules which are disposed in opposite areas interposing a power supply unit disposed at a center position. To prevent a pair of server modules from interfering with a power supply unit, each server module needs to be formed in an L-shape in plan view by partially cutting out one corner thereof. In the housing of a high-density server, a left-side sever module has a cutout at a right corner while a right-side server module has a cutout at a left corner. Patent Literatures 1 to 4 do not teach a high-density server with a housing accommodating a pair of server modules having different shapes.
In the above, a left-side server module and a right-side server module, having different shapes, are not compatible to each other; in other words, they are exclusively-designed products which need exclusively-designed parts in maintenance, causing troublesome management. Additionally, it is difficult to individually design and develop left-side and right-side server modules having different shapes. To solve this drawback, it may be necessary to develop standard shapes for server modules. However, when a pair of server modules having standard shapes is installed in a housing in a horizontally-reverse manner, riser cards (e.g. I/O cards) may be horizontally or vertically applied to server modules. When two or more I/O cards, each having a plurality of ports, are installed in server modules, for example, they may be erroneously connected to motherboards in server modules.